The Community provisions that are applicable to imports affected by dumping are Decisions 456, when the imports affected by dumping are native to an Andean Community Member Country and 283, when those products originated in a third country and affect the products exported from one Member Country to another, or when two or more Member Countries are affected by dumping practices and the product is subject to the Common External Tariff (CET).

Dumping is a price discrimination practice that occurs when a company exports its products to another country at prices lower than those at which the products are sold in its domestic market.

Dumping occurs when, in the course of normal trading operations, a product’s export price is lower than the domestic price of a similar product intended for consumption in the exporting country.

Community provisions stipulate that specific adjustments must be made to both the export price and the selling price in the domestic market of the exporting country, so that the two values can be compared fairly. These adjustments are needed because product prices vary in each operation due to differences in the selling conditions and terms in the domestic and export markets, such as applicable taxes and duties and different physical characteristics, among other things.

The dumping margin is the difference between the adjusted domestic price and the adjusted export price. A dumping margin of less than a 5 percent difference in export price in the trade of products native to a Member Country or of less than 2 percent in that of products originating in a third country, is considered insignificant.

Another condition that must be met in the case of imports affected by dumping is that the national production of the affected Member Country that is intended for the domestic market or for export, as the case may be, must also be seriously harmed or in danger of serious harm because of the dumping.

The measure to be taken in this case is the application of so-called "anti-dumping duties" to each one of the exporters investigated, but not necessarily to all of the products imported from the country of origin of the exporter investigated.

The investigation period is six months, which can be extended for a further two months in the case of complaints made under Decision 456 and four months, which can be extended for a further two months, in the case of complaints made pursuant to Decision 283.